Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/649

The Republic of San Marino 639 licans who had property in his territory. But on Guido's death, Sigismondo endeavored to surprise San Marino by a night attack, which was only averted by means of a timely warning sent to the inhabitants by Guide's successor, Oddo Antonio. A fresh attempt was made in 1449 to bribe some of the citizens, but on this occasion, as before, the plot was discovered, and the principal traitor executed. But the turn of the Republicans to take vengeance on Malatesta soon came. Alfonso of Aragon, King of Naples, who had a quarrel with him, had no difficulty in persuading them through his generalissimo, Frederico, the new count of Urbino, to join in war against the lord of Rimini. A cautious Sammarinese did, indeed, remind his fellow countrymen, much as Onofri reminded them in the time of Bonaparte, that "wars end but neighbors remain." But the offences of Malatesta rankled in their breasts, and in 1458 they signed a treaty of alliance with the King. Still, at the eleventh hour, they seem to have become alarmed, and endeavored to stand well with both parties. Their diplomacy and the operations of their allies were successful, and the Sammarinesi received the castle of Fiorentino, which had long threatened them, and which still forms part of their territory, though it has long been dismantled. Four years later the war was renewed at the instigation of Pope Pius II., who urged the faithful Republicans to attack Malatesta, and made them vague promises of territorial compensation, which they were too wary to believe without some more definite arrangement. The Pope accordingly sent a confidential envoy to make a definite agreement with the republic, which was concluded on September 21, 1462, and provided "that the hamlet of Fiorentino, with the castles of Montegiardino and Serravalle and their appurtenances," should be given to San Marino.

These places, together with the castle of Faetano, which had voluntarily joined it, were in 1463 actually added to the republic, as a reward for its vigorous part in the campaign, and are still integral parts of it. "These," says the local historian, Fattori, "are the last acquisitions which the government of San Marino made. From that time the republic has not grown by so much as an inch of land, and, content with its modest frontiers, has never sought to extend them." The complete downfall of the Malatesti, as the result of this struggle, freed the Republicans from danger on the side of Rimini, and the rest of the fifteenth century was the golden age of San Marino. The Florentines wrote to their "dearest friends," the men of San Marino, and the latter were courageous enough to join in opposing by force Pope Paul II. 's design of an-